Abstract
Linguistic diversity is growing in labour markets throughout Europe, including Finland, where cleaning is the most common job for immigrants. This paper explores material scaffolding provided for second language users in tasks involved in cleaning work. The notion of ‘scaffolding’ refers to temporary and adaptive support, and here the emphasis is especially on ‘material scaffolding’, that is, material artefacts and body movements employed in mentoring. The theoretical framework of the study is van Lier’s (2004) ecological perspective on language learning, and a discourse-ethnographic perspective of nexus analysis (Scollon and Scollon 2004) is adopted to analyse the ethnographic data collected at two work sites. Scaffolding is regarded as a nexus of social practices in which participants, interaction orders and mediational means intersect. The social actions in work encounters are explored to show how space, body movements and material artefacts are employed in work-related communication. The observations on these two work sites suggest that cleaning work can be successfully performed with a beginner’s level in the work language as long as guided support is available, and especially if the multiple material mediational means in the immediate surroundings are utilized in scaffolding.
Zusammenfassung
Sprachliche Vielfältigkeit nimmt auf dem europäischen Arbeitsmarkt zu, inklusive Finnland, wo Reinigungsarbeit die gewöhnlichste Tätigkeit bei Immigranten ist. In diesem Artikel wird die rechtzeitige materielle Unterstützung (Scaffolding) betrachtet, die Zweitsprachensprechern bei Reinigungsaufgaben angeboten wird. Der Begriff des Scaffolding bezieht sich auf eine befristete und adaptive Unterstützung, und hier wird besonders materielles Scaffolding (bzw. die im Mentoring gebrauchten materiellen Artefakte und Körperbewegungen) betont. Der theoretische Bezugsrahmen der Studie ist die ökologische Perspektive auf Spracherlernung von van Lier (2004), und eine diskursethnographische Perspektive der Nexus-Analyse (Scollon & Scollon 2004) wird benutzt, um das an zwei Arbeitsplätzen gesammelte ethnographische Material zu analysieren. Scaffolding wird als ein Netzwerk von sozialen Bräuchen betrachtet, in dem sich die Teilnehmer, Interaktionsordnungen und Mediationsmittel (mediational means) kreuzen. Soziale Begegnungen am Arbeitsplatz werden untersucht, um zu zeigen, wie der Raum, die Körperbewegungen und materiellen Artefakte in berufsbezogener Kommunikation benutzt werden. Die Beobachtungen an diesen zwei Arbeitsplätzen deuten darauf hin, dass man Reinigungsarbeit auch mit elementaren Kenntnissen in der Arbeitssprache gut leisten kann, wenn Unterstützung erhältlich ist, und besonders, wenn die in der unmittelbaren Umgebung erhältlichen materiellen Mediationsmittel im Scaffolding benutzt werden.
Resumen
La diversidad de lenguas aumenta en los mercados laborales de toda Europa, inclusive en Finlandia, donde los trabajos de limpieza son los más comunes para los inmigrantes. Este artículo explora cómo son ayudados con andamiaje material (scaffolding) los usuarios de segunda lengua que trabajan en limpieza. El concepto ‘scaffolding’ se refiere a andamiaje temporal y adaptivo, aquí se enfatiza especialmente ‘scaffolding material’ (los artefactos materiales y los movimientos corporales utilizados en la mentoría). El marco teórico es la perspectiva ecológica del aprendizaje del idioma de Leo van Lier (2004), y se utiliza una perspectiva discurso-etnográfica del análisis del nexo (Scollon & Scollon 2004) para analizar los datos etnográficos recabados en dos lugares de trabajo. El andamiaje se ve como un nexo de prácticas sociales en las que los participantes, las órdenes de interacción y los instrumentos mediadores (mediational means) se entrecruzan. Las acciones sociales en encuentros laborales son estudiadas para mostrar de qué manera el espacio, los movimientos corporales y los artefactos materiales son usados en la comunicación laboral. La observación de estos dos lugares de trabajo sugiere que el trabajo de limpieza puede ser realizado con éxito con un nivel de principiante en el conocimiento del idioma siempre y cuando se cuente con una guía, especialmente si se utilizan los instrumentos mediadores materiales del entorno inmediato como andamiaje.
Abstrakti
Kielellinen moninaisuus lisääntyy Euroopan työmarkkinoilla, myös Suomessa, jossa siivous on maahanmuuttajien yleisin työ. Tässä artikkelissa tarkastellaan, miten toisen kielen käyttäjille tarjotaan materiaalista oikea-aikaista tukea siivoustyöhön liittyvissä tehtävissä. 'Oikea-aikainen tuki' (scaffolding) tarkoittaa väliaikaista ja mukautuvaa tukea, ja tässä tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan erityisesti 'materiaalista oikea-aikaista tukea' eli materiaalisten artefaktien ja kehonkielen käyttämistä ohjaamisessa. Tutkimuksen teoreettisena viitekehyksenä on van Lierin (2004) ekologinen näkökulma kielenoppimiseen. Etnografista diskurssintutkimuksen näkökulmaa, neksusanalyysia (Scollon & Scollon 2004), käytetään kahdessa työkohteessa kerätyn etnografisen aineiston analysoimiseen. Oikea-aikainen tuki nähdään sosiaalisten käytänteiden verkostona, jossa osallistujat, vuorovaikutusjärjestykset ja välittyneisyyden keinot (mediational means) risteävät. Sosiaalista toimintaa työtilanteissa tutkitaan, jotta saadaan selville miten tilaa, kehon liikkeitä ja materiaalisia artefakteja käytetään työhön liittyvässä suullisessa vuorovaikutuksessa. Tutkimukseen osallistuneilla työpaikoilla tehdyt havainnot viittaavat siihen, että siivoustyössä pystyy suoriutumaan hyvin myös alkeistason kielitaidolla, jos tukea on saatavilla. Parhaiten ymmärtäminen varmistuu, jos ympäristössä saatavilla olevia materiaalisia välittäjiä käytetään hyväksi oikea-aikaisessa tuessa.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the participants and their organizations for making this study possible. I would like to express my gratitude to Minna Suni, Sari Pietikäinen and the second anonymous reviewer for their valuable comments. In addition, I want to thank my peers who read and discussed the paper with me during different phases of the writing process – it was truly helpful.
Appendices
Appendix 1: Transcription
(.) pause in speech (less than 1 second)
(2.1) silences timed in tenths of a second
((lifts a floor tile)) explanations of actions and sounds
mil- cut-off word
[ beginnings of simultaneous talk
small emphasis
? rising intonation at the end of the prosodic entity
[in a restaurant] changed names and blurred details
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